The concept of chemical destruction of obnoxious weeds is well known in the art. Typically, a herbicide is sprayed on the leaves and stem of a weed to kill it. Oftentimes, weeds with deep roots require repeated applications of the herbicide before they die. This can lead to large expenditures for herbicides, as well as excessive herbicide that could be destructive to neighboring plants. In addition many herbicides require pre-application mixing procedures for activation or dilution. These procedures can increase the time necessary to effectively apply the herbicide, as well as creating a possible health hazard.
Another difficulty with traditionally applied herbicides is that rain can wash the herbicide off the leaves and stem of the plant before the herbicide can penetrate into and destroy the plant. Depending upon the type of herbicide, this could have damaging effects upon the surrounding plants. Further, many weeds are unfortunately perennial, and the use of traditional herbicides to control them may not prevent an annual appearance by the offending weed.
One of the most common methods of killing obnoxious weeds is to spray the leaves of the plant with a herbicide. In order to enhance the effectiveness of the herbicide and to prevent destruction of useful plants around the obnoxious weed one can place a shroud or some confinement member over the plant. Such an item is shown in the Dickison U.S. Pat. No. 2,841,923. Dickison uses a cup like member that is placed over the leaves of the plant so that the herbicide can be sprayed directly to the leaves of the plant and the environment around the plant.
The present invention provides an insitu herbicide carrier mechanism for those particularly stubborn weeds without the use of large cumbersome shrouds that envelope the leaves of the plant. The present invention can come ready-to-use so as to not require premixing and thus minimize contact between user and herbicide. In addition since the herbicide is not airborne one also minimizes chances of inhalation of the herbicide. With the present invention the herbicide is held in confinement for direct transfer to a cut stem of an obnoxious weed. The carrier mechanism, while delivering the herbicide to the plant, also provides a protective cover to prevent rain from washing the herbicide away from the plant.
The present invention is particularly useful for destroying perennial type weeds that require eradicating by killing the roots of the weed as the present invention maintains a supply of herbicide in direct contact with a weed stem for an extended period of time to allow the herbicide to penetrate into the roots of the weed and kill it.